Protocols for the 1841 census

[Scottsearcher]

Can anyone tell me please if there is any significance to the order in which individuals are entered on the enumerator's return? I'd always assumed that the head of household was listed first but have just come across an entry where a 7 year old boy, bearing a name different from the others in the household, was listed first.

And, while we are on the topic, is it correct to assume that a double stroke before the name indicates a new household?

[JenB]

I'd always assumed that the head of household was listed first

The instructions to the enumerator were these:

Insert, without distinction or omission, every living person who abode or slept in each house. Leave no blank spaces between the names, but enter each immediately after the one preceding it, so that each page may contain 25. Set down one after the other those who have the same surname, beginning with the heads of the family, and put no others between them. As long as the surname is the same do not repeat it, but write “do.” Where there are more Christian names than one, as “John William,” or “Maria Louisa,” write down only the first.

And, while we are on the topic, is it correct to assume that a double stroke before the name indicates a new household?

At the end of the names of each family draw a line thus / as in the Example. At the end of the names of the
inmates in each house draw a double line thus //

http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~framland/census/1841directions.htm

[Scottsearcher]

Thanks, JenB.

[stanmapstone]

You can see the original of the instructions as printed in the "Enumeration abstract, 1841", 1843,  at http://www.rootschat.com/links/0e2l/ Pages 2 & 3

Stan

[Jeuel]

Although it was usual for the Head (usually a man) to be listed first, then his wife, then their children in birth order and then any visitors, boarders, servants etc, I've come across several where the order isn't right.

In one case the wife had been missed off and added at the end with a scribble showing that she should have been placed after the head and before the first child.

I've also found children placed above their parents and several cases where all the male children were listed before the daughters.

[carol8353]

Because no relationship to the head is given in 1841,don't assume that they are the ideal family of mum dad and the kids 

I did that and it turned out that mum had died some years before and two of dad's sisters had moved in.

So just be aware of that !

Carol